Theme of Immortality and art in Sailing to Byzantium.
The theme of immortality in Yeats's Byzantium poems is explored in the pair poems,
"Byzantium" and "Sailing to Byzantium." Both seem to express a desire to escape from the
decay and tedium of cyclical nature. On a wholly spiritual level, "Byzantium" clearly does
contrast the mere mundane level of daylight vision with the infinitely richer possibilities that
contemplations of the eternal and the miraculous offer.
If the poem seems to trivialise day-to-day despairs, and travails, it does so by asserting that
enduring glories, that are as yet unimagined albeit hinted at, in the symbols and icons of
artistic and religious traditions, will eventually reward the patient soul. The less one
categorises the nature of these glories-whether they are religious' or aesthetic-of the eternal
and spiritual or of the temporal and perceptual, the more one can appreciate Yeats's main
point that, they are in fact transcendent and beyond corruption, and are therefore
unchanging.
Similarly, the major theme of "Sailing to Byzantium" is the transformative power of art, the
ability of art to express the ineffable and to step outside the boundaries of self. Some
concrete details of the poem might be read autobiographically, such as the speaker's desire
to leave his country, references to himself as an old man, "a tattered coat upon a Stick," and
having a heart "sick with desire/And fastened to a dying animal." Although an old man, the
speaker still feels the desire to sail to Byzantium and metaphorically to transcend the
sensual music of Ireland.
He wants to transform his own consciousness and find mystical union with the golden
mosaics of a medieval empire. The poet pleads with the sages, in' the mosaic to open the
door and allow him entry into their world, where he might reflect on past, present, and future.
With his body discarded, the poet's concept of time changes. He is no longer the victim of a
biological cycle, but has liberated himself into a new world, capable of reaching over all eras.
The poet leaves behind a temporal world of ignorant, lust and physical celebration to gain
the perspective of eternity.
In his later poetry, Yeats expresses a growing concern with the problem of age and the
attitude in his later poetry. "Sailing to Byzantium" is a case in point. Old age, according to
Yeats in this poem, is a time to leave behind the sensual mire of the dying generations and
to contemplate on the "artifice of eternity". Old age is useless if at that time one does not
respond to spirituality, or the soul's claps and songs.
The opening stanza gives a richly concrete picture of instinctive life with the images of
sensual delight occupying the young of all Species that sing out of excitement. But they
express the world of flux and death in perpetual motion. The oId man has no place amidst
this "sensual music". The only justification of old age is the contemplation of those artefacts
which proclaim the glory of the spirit and unageing intellect above the transitory song of the
body. Thus the poet in his old age makes his voyage to Byzantium-a journey from the
sensual to the spiritual world. There he will choose the form of a golden bird whose song will
The theme of immortality in Yeats's Byzantium poems is explored in the pair poems,
"Byzantium" and "Sailing to Byzantium." Both seem to express a desire to escape from the
decay and tedium of cyclical nature. On a wholly spiritual level, "Byzantium" clearly does
contrast the mere mundane level of daylight vision with the infinitely richer possibilities that
contemplations of the eternal and the miraculous offer.
If the poem seems to trivialise day-to-day despairs, and travails, it does so by asserting that
enduring glories, that are as yet unimagined albeit hinted at, in the symbols and icons of
artistic and religious traditions, will eventually reward the patient soul. The less one
categorises the nature of these glories-whether they are religious' or aesthetic-of the eternal
and spiritual or of the temporal and perceptual, the more one can appreciate Yeats's main
point that, they are in fact transcendent and beyond corruption, and are therefore
unchanging.
Similarly, the major theme of "Sailing to Byzantium" is the transformative power of art, the
ability of art to express the ineffable and to step outside the boundaries of self. Some
concrete details of the poem might be read autobiographically, such as the speaker's desire
to leave his country, references to himself as an old man, "a tattered coat upon a Stick," and
having a heart "sick with desire/And fastened to a dying animal." Although an old man, the
speaker still feels the desire to sail to Byzantium and metaphorically to transcend the
sensual music of Ireland.
He wants to transform his own consciousness and find mystical union with the golden
mosaics of a medieval empire. The poet pleads with the sages, in' the mosaic to open the
door and allow him entry into their world, where he might reflect on past, present, and future.
With his body discarded, the poet's concept of time changes. He is no longer the victim of a
biological cycle, but has liberated himself into a new world, capable of reaching over all eras.
The poet leaves behind a temporal world of ignorant, lust and physical celebration to gain
the perspective of eternity.
In his later poetry, Yeats expresses a growing concern with the problem of age and the
attitude in his later poetry. "Sailing to Byzantium" is a case in point. Old age, according to
Yeats in this poem, is a time to leave behind the sensual mire of the dying generations and
to contemplate on the "artifice of eternity". Old age is useless if at that time one does not
respond to spirituality, or the soul's claps and songs.
The opening stanza gives a richly concrete picture of instinctive life with the images of
sensual delight occupying the young of all Species that sing out of excitement. But they
express the world of flux and death in perpetual motion. The oId man has no place amidst
this "sensual music". The only justification of old age is the contemplation of those artefacts
which proclaim the glory of the spirit and unageing intellect above the transitory song of the
body. Thus the poet in his old age makes his voyage to Byzantium-a journey from the
sensual to the spiritual world. There he will choose the form of a golden bird whose song will
